I want "None" under Visual Effects (on the Appearance Preferences), but when I reboot it reverts to Normal. I've tried uninstalling Compiz but that clearly upsets the gods because then I lose my title bars. Googling for help on this produces answers involving the Visual Effects option, which is all ghosted out once I've uninstall compiz. Not only that, but the keyboard is ignored in all windows unless only one window is open (actually, it might be just the window the mouse is currently over). So if I google for help and the answer it is to type something into Terminal, I cannot do this until I quit the browser.

I installed another instance of Ubuntu from the same CD, which is working fine.

It seems to me that something else is perhaps trying to load/use compiz it when I reboot, and if it's not there it has this title bar problem. There's nothing obvious in my "Startup Applications" list.

Edit: I just created another user, and for this user the desired setting sticks, suggesting it's a per-user setting/problem, not a system wide one.

2 Answers
2

You can use Compiz Fusion Icon which
can be easily installed by dropping
sudo apt-get install fusion-icon in
a terminal. After that, find the
fusion-icon in the System Tools menu
and you will have several choices in
the panel's fusion icon, which
includes but not limits to: Select
Window Decorator.

Right click the fusion icon and choose
your prefered window decorator, window
manager and a few other features. Then
select "Reload Window Manager" and
your monitor or windows may flicker.

Don't worry, it will take just a
moment to reload your options and
after that you can close the fusion
Icon. The options should persist this
time.

Yeah, by doing and and sort of playing around I've got the windows minimizing/maximizing quickly, even if I can't actually select "none". I have to load that icon at each boot time, however, otherwise I can't alt-tab, ctrl-alt-left etc. I can't just revert back to whatever "window manager" I was using before I experimented with Compiz? Or is that Metacity? In which case why have I lost the shortcuts? There's nothing in the short-cut editor which tells me they're going to be ignored!
–
AlexMar 21 '11 at 20:17

I edited my answer in order to give you a suggestion, I can't say why this happened to your system but I hope you find a solution.
–
Geppettvs D'ConstanzoMar 21 '11 at 22:06

No, that's been great. What I learned from it was that you have to use fusion to "reload window manager" (without actually selecting a different one) then I can alt-tab etc. Or typing "metacity --replace" does the same thing, so I simply added that to my "startup applications" list and it's done the trick.
–
AlexMar 22 '11 at 9:34